Ducks at Oilers
Anaheim spent a good part of the season as the lowest-scoring team in the NHL, but those days are long gone as the red-hot Ducks visit the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Anaheim improved to 11-2-1 in its last 14 games with a 6-4 victory over Calgary on Monday to bring its goal total to 53 during that span, and the club is 3-1-1 on its season-high seven-game road trip that will take it through all four time zones.
Anaheim moved past San Jose into second place in the Pacific Division, five points behind Los Angeles with three games remaining against its Southern California rival. "We're figuring out ways to win, that's for sure," Ducks blue-liner Cam Fowler told reporters after the less-than-stellar defensive performance by a club that allows the seventh-fewest goals in the league. "It's not how we like to do it." Edmonton lost 2-1 in a shootout to Winnipeg on Saturday in the second contest of a six-game homestand for its fourth setback in five games (1-3-1). Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot, who allowed three goals in splitting two meetings with Anaheim this season, is expected to play after missing Saturday's game because of the flu, telling reporters: "I'm feeling great (Monday). I think it was just a 24-hour thing."
TV: 9 p.m. ET, Prime Ticket, FSN San Diego (Anaheim), Sportsnet West (Edmonton)
ABOUT THE DUCKS (28-19-8): With Chris Stewart sidelined 4-to-8 weeks with a broken jaw, coach Bruce Boudreau continued his auditions for the chance to join a line centered by captain Ryan Getzlaf that also includes David Perron. Monday's participant was Mike Santorelli, who recorded his first multi-goal performance since Dec. 8, 2013 with a pair to raise his season total to nine. Frederik Andersen was in goal Monday with John Gibson out after taking a knee to the head during a collision in Saturday's 3-2 overtime victory in Chicago, and if Gibson cannot go Tuesday, Anton Khudobin - called up from San Diego of the American Hockey League - may start.
ABOUT THE OILERS (22-29-6): Connor McDavid, the top pick in the 2015 draft, was unsuccessful on his first career shootout attempt and also held off the scoresheet Saturday for only the second time in seven games since returning from a broken left clavicle. The 19-year-old center, who recorded two goals and three assists in Edmonton's 5-2 victory over Toronto on Thursday, has notched four tallies and eight assists since coming back. Taylor Hall, who shares the team lead with Jordan Eberle in goals with 18 and boasts a club-best 32 assists, hasn't recorded a point in five games and has registered only two assists since McDavid's return.
OVERTIME
1. The Oilers are 1-for-17 on the power play over their last five games and 11-for-11 on the penalty kill in the last two contests.
2. Anaheim owns the top penalty-killing unit in the NHL at 87.6 percent, but has yielded at least one power-play goal in a season-high four straight games and six of its last seven contests.
3. The Ducks have won 16 of the last 21 meetings in Edmonton.